Impacts of course activities on student perceptions of engagement and learning online

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to examine the impacts of course activities on student perceptions of engagement and learning in online courses. Using eight interactive course activities as indicators of course interactivity, we conducted a latent profile analysis to cluster students into different groups. Based on students’ perceptions, we observed three distinct groups of instructional contexts: (a) courses with low student-student but high student-instructor interactions (Low S-S but High S-I Interactions; 25.3%), (b) courses that mainly utilize group discussions (Group Discussion Focused; 20.2%), and (c) courses with high student-student and high student-instructor interactions (High S-S and S-I Interactions; 54.4%). Students’ perceptions of engagement and learning outcomes varied across groups. Notably, students in the highly interactive courses (High S-S and S-I Interactions) reported the most favorable perceptions of engagement and learning outcomes, compared to students in the other two groups. Implications for instruction professionals and future research directions are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• interactive course activities
• online learning
• student engagement
• instructional context
• latent profile analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chia-Lin Tsai

Chia-Lin Tsai is an assistant professor at the University of Northern Colorado. She earned her PhD in educational psychology from the University of Missouri. Her research interests include validity studies of research instruments and online teaching and learning.

Heng-Yu Ku

Heng-Yu Ku is a professor at the University of Northern Colorado. He earned his PhD in learning and instructional technology from Arizona State University. His research interests include technology integration, online learning and teaching strategies, online collaboration, and teacher candidates’ field experiences.

Ashlea Campbell

Ashlea Campbell is a doctoral candidate at the University of Northern Colorado. Her research interests include curriculum studies, the history of education, qualitative research methods, and social and emotional learning implementation.